1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to a destination adjustment installation for the adjustment of a container identification code on a lateral wall of a receptacle guided on a conveyor path in a path direction which is parallel to a guide strip and the container identification mark being movable from an initial position which is the same for all receptacles and to different destination characteristic positions and comprises an actuating element which engages during displacement with a positioning device according to a destination memory of a controlled installation of the destination adjustment installation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A destination adjustment installation is described in German OS No. 2,141,189 and it is arranged at the location of a collecting path for empty receptacles which is provided at a central location and serves the purpose of destination adjustment of empty receptacles which can be called for by the individual stations of a transport system depending upon its requirements. One of the major objectives of such central collecting path for empty receptacles is reduction of the cost of requirement for supply of empty receptacles to be maintained at the individual stations. The method of operation is such that an operating individual transmits at a transmitting station, by means of a corresponding switching device, a request to the collecting path or to the control installation pertaining to the destination adjustment installation. The empty receptacle prior to its entry into the actual transport path passes by the destination adjustment installation where the destination characteristic position of the individual destination identification marks corresponding to the requesting station is adjusted. A gripper is introduced in the destination adjustment installation which gripper is driven into the region of the movable or displaceable destination identification and which exhibits a drive which causes movement of the gripper along the length of the guide strip and thus movement of the destination identifications which are seized by the gripper within the guide strip.
The structural and drive means results in a high cost because on account of the necessity of a first drive device which conveys the gripper to the receptacles and a second drive device which moves the gripper. It is also aggravating to have the comparative low adjustment speed with such systems. In the case of the prior art destination adjustment installation for each destination adjustment three successive operating steps must be carried out. These are:
1. Lateral movement of the gripper to the receptacle;
2. Adjustment of the gripper in the path direction; and
3. Subsequent lateral moving of the gripper away from the receptacle.
The disadvantages of the low adjustment speed of a destination adjustment installation is avoided by similar installation described in German OS No. 2,436,376. This destination adjustment installation exhibits for each movable destination identification a number of limit stops corresponding to the number of possible different destination adjustment positions which limit stops are selectively advanced by means of a feed device into the movement region of the destination identifications and in the case of a relatively aligned position of the respective destination characterizing position with the respective limit stop are again withdrawn from the displacement region. In the simplest embodiment the feed installations can be designed in the form of lifting magnets which have cores that are moved into the displacement region of the destination identification means. In view of the comparatively large number of different destination characteristic positions which is conventional in practice the destination adjustment device requires a correspondingly high apparatus outlay. Thus for example in the case of three guide strips per receptacle with ten different destination characterizing positions for each it would require 30 lifting magnets for the adjustment of all possible destinations. A serious deficiency of this destination adjustment installation also results in that it can be employed only for destination identification systems in which a single destination identification is moved in a guide strip.